Out here in the community, we very much appreciate all your work on the MCF5223x, and I'm surprised no-one has had the courtesy to respond to your posting.

I'd say that we are all pretty happy with the initialisation provided for the peripherals by CFInit, and the software initialisations templates and DBUG source provide much more useful references for all the CF parts.

So, do we need more Apps Notes on the peripherals - I'd say NO we don't. What is helpful is apps notes showing us how to use the more complex peripherals, such as MAC/PHY with Interniche, USB (with CMX) and the more esoteric peripherals, like DMA and CAU.

I, too, appreciate all the work you've done. It seems every time I Google for info on the M5223x (and that's been often lately) your name appears.

I agree with an earlier post that what's needed, at least by those of us on the early part of the learning curve, is more "startup" info. I'm teaching an Embedded Networks class this semester, and we've purchased M52233DEMO boards for the lab, but it's turning out to be quite a struggle to do simple things. The app notes I've read (3455, 3470, and 3518), as well as some of your other pubs (TCP/IP stack deep dive) and the code samples have a lot of info, to be sure, but it still feels like drinking from a firehose!

WRT TCP/IP, I'd like to see a couple of simpler, starter-level examples. (I've seen references to an HTTP Client app, which sounds like a nice evening snack, but haven't been able to find the sample code). Maybe a superloop example or two showing TCP and/or HTTP clients in action (avoiding the RTOS at first should make for a much simpler learning experience). Anything like this available? Other advise for a rookie to the M5223x TCP/IP world?

As a new Coldfire user, I see the need for simple and quick USB implementation (mainly CDC, virtual com port for command interface and generic HID). Your an3492 is a good intro to the CMX kit, but the project is directory mess and does not integrate well into the latest CodeWarrior - which we love due to auto-built startup, lcf files, headers, and API docs. I hear many times from our partner developers: if we could just get a quick/simple/small footprint USB virtual comm port up on Coldfire, we'd be happy. We also develop with STMicro Cortex and Cypress PSOC - getting a generic HID and virtual comm working on those parts is built in to the IDE - minutes work and fully integrated into the part configuration tool.

I have to agree. The simpler peripherals are easy enouogh to figure out, and the beans in processor expert do a decent job of getting basic applications going quickly.

I am implementing a HID device with an 08JM, and am considering stepping up to the MCF51 part. Since the USB issues were the toughest part of this project, this is the only thing that is making me reluctant to jump to the CF parts.

A drop-in USB module / app note that is compatible with Processor Expert that is either CDC or HID would be a huge help to me as well as others.

The next item would be a USB bootloader that is Processor Expert compatible. The current app note doesn't look promising, as PE likes to control things like start-up and the vectors. The mass-storage class USB idea that the badgeboard uses is intrigueing, but I doubt it would work with an app that uses the USB port for something else.

Bottom line, USB seems to be a common need. HID is nice as it is a driverless install. CDC seems to be mentioned most often as the host side (PC) communication tasks are easier.

I have done a lot of design wiht the HC11 and 9S12, but I need to explore coldfire for work (I teach college) so I bought myself a M5213 badge board.

I thought it might be useful to try out in a ham radio project I am working on, to monitor the CAN bus that I am using to communicate between cards in my repeater controller.

Is there any info out there, or better still sample code, for accessing the CAN bus and possibky picking out packets for analysis?

Also, I am trying to figure out how to use the supplied CW with the badge board. With the 9S12 I use either the serial monitor or a Tech Arts and PE debug pod. I don't have a JTAG pod to use with the 5213 so I was expecting CW to be able to talk to the firmware already on the board just like the serial monitor. Is this not so?

The Coldfire boards don't have a serial monitor in them as is the case of some 9S12 types.

I don't known the "5213 badge board" and it doesn't seem to be sold directly by Freescale - the Freescale M5213EVB is delivered together with a P&E BDM (http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=M5213EVB&fsrch=1 - total price $299). There is a demo board http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=M5211DEMO&fsrch=1 costing $99, which contains an in-board P&E BDM.

Generally I wouldn't recommend the M5213 for teaching projects since the newer Kirin3 is much better suited: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=M52259DEMOKIT&fsrch=1 - also for $99 its demo board (or new tower system for $119 (http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=TWR-MCF5225X&fsrch=1 ) will give you much more for your money and much more flexibility (the M5213 is specifically for CAN and otherwise rather limited, whereas the Kirin3 also has the same CAN controller, more memory, Ethernet and USB on top - opening many more possibilities). The Freescale demo boards have integrated BDM so can be used without having to purchase extra tools.

Unfortunately with the Badge board that you have (possibly the one that I could track down on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com.my/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=160383559679 ?) can not work without a BDM, which will cost about $250 if the standard P&E is chosen (http://www.pemicro.com/products/product_viewDetails.cfm?product_id=163&menu_id=details&CFID=3212551&CFTOKEN=94286562 ). There are some cheaper (but slower) ones around and also some that you can build yourself. Some people prefer to buy a cheaper demo board and cut out the in-board debugger for use with other boards...

For teaching projects you can also look at the uTasker project - it supports all V2 Coldfires, including the M5213 as well as the more advanced ones like M5225x - including a CAN driver (see http://www.utasker.com/docs/uTasker/uTaskerCAN.PDF ) as well as everything else needed for projects with these boards (OS, TCP/IP stack, USB CDC, all device drivers, FAT support for SD cards and a real-time Coldfire simulator). The simulator will also allow students to develop software for Coldfires, test it without the need for HW and debuggers, as well as analysing existing code and protocols. Use is free of change and also fully supported for educational and other non-commercial work.

I would like to see something practical as regards USB on the MCF5445x at FS say.

In particular the aspect of having to loop until the priming of the endpoints has taken place before proceeding. Technical responses from freescale do not seem to doubt that there is any problem in this area. However even with the acceptence of packets and their immediate 'dumping' i.e no further processing there are still an excessive number of Naks being generated, suggesting that the wait on Priming is not ideal.

At HS there are slighlty different symptoms and are a sufficient cause for concern for us to feel that we have to utilise an off chip ISP1502/3 instead.

Do you have a 54455EVB? If so can you put the latest linux BSP on it and try doing the same transfer? When we tested it we didn't have these problems (that I recall -- it's been a long time and we no longer work for freescale.. So things have gotten hazy).

I have an EVB but do not use the linux BSP. I am developing standalone firmware for a MCF54450 which I can also run on the EVB, the only difference being that I run at High Speed on the EVB instead of FS.

I put the mods into both builds, including setting Priority mode and parking the SDRAM on the OTG Master.

Again, with the EVB, every Packet is at first NaK'd, followed this time by at least 8 pings before one is Ack'd, and then when the Packet is resent it is Ack'd. Admitedly ther pings saved data transfer but the pings consumed time and hence things clearly are nowhere near optimal. This is however happening with clockwork regularity.

The MQX guys claim to have it working with the 3.4 release but I haven't tested that yet but I presume that if it works with an adequate performance, then they have implemented a work around for an unpublished bug ... so my next step is to trawl their code to see how they have set up the device in both FS and HS modes.

All cloak and dagger hence the request for an application note showing how to do it

The problem I had is that the Reference Manual gives a list of all of the registers in the LCD hardware, but doesn't give much in the way of details (flow charts, operational sequence) to be able to UNDERSTAND the hardware well enough to be able to write software to control it.

For instance there's nothing saying THAT the hardware takes a copy of the SSAR register at one specific point in its operational sequence, and that the register can therefore be written at any time. The LCD controller will "ACK" the reading of this value with an interrupt. There's nothing saying WHEN it does it either. The expectation would be "at the start of a frame", but the actuality is "immediately after the end of the data from the previous frame".

I've solved the problems, but a short example showing how to display a series of images on a QVGA (or equivalent) screen would be a good example for people to then work from.

Hi, I'm new to Coldfire CPUs and I am using the MCF52259 for a project. I've been going through the Processor Expert examples which are great, but I haven't seen any examples (or AppNotes) for reading/writing to the internal Flash. Are there plans for an internal Flash App Note for the MCF5225X? Can I use the internal Flash App Note for the MCF5223X? Thanks in adavance for your help!

I have a strong need for an appnote for using UARTs via DMA on the MCF54418. The processor can't seem to handle all much traffic on all 10 uarts at 115200 with an interrupt driven driver, I am hoping DMA will speed things up enough to solve these problems but I haven't been able to get it working. An appnote on that would likely be enormously helpful.

I have been struggling with USB and bootloaders for the JM family. Using the Medstack USB is just out of the question, its basic size is close to 13K. Of the app notes you have out there for the Coldfire USB bootloaders most are very poorly documented and really, I hate to say this, kind of hacks. It would be nice if you guys really sat down and wrote a really good bootloader that was a bit extensible (for instance I am also trying to load an external flash PROM via SPI. If you provided one good vendor command bootloader and maybe extended that to also include an HID bootloader (the vendor command bootloader could be used as the basis with and HID extension) that would be great.

me too. Some of the recent MSD bootloaders are HUGE, which is "redicularious". A bootloader should be lean and mean, not take almost half of the larger chip (64K chip would be unusable) Most of the coldfire bootloaders require that the application run with the interrupt vectors in RAM. Ok for a desktop machine or non-critical application I suppose, but embedded stuff should run from flash and refresh all ram variables.... (my opinion) The AN2295 stuff is decent, the latest beta is very close but has a couple bugs. Hoping Pavel answers my posts there. Bob

I'm trying to develop and android accessory with a K60, and there's no info on that from Freescale. Let's face it, android is continiuosly growing and have the advantage of provide a simple, intuitive , ready-to-use user interface that makes any development much easier and increase its impact on the market.

Also, I'd like to add that I did'nt know about this Appnote feedback which I think is a very important link between manufacter and developer.

Then select "Application Notes" and then select "Coldfire" and then drill down to the parts you're interested in. There are currently 219 App Notes under "ColdFire+/ColdFire MCUs and Processors and 16 under "V3 Embedded Processors", the ones I'm interested in. Of the more than 30 modules in the chip I use, only two have App notes. That's not good coverage.

The latest ones there (for the V3 processors) are AN3631 on USB, AN3632: on the MCF5227x touch screen and AN3757 on uCLinux, all from 2008. AN4189 on MQX from 2010 and AN4307 on the CAU module from 2011.

> Also, I'd like to add that I did'nt know about this Appnote feedback

> which I think is a very important link between manufacter and developer.

There was ONE request from a Eric 5 years and 5 months ago, and no obvious response from Freescale since then. Not much of a "link" and no sign of any ongoing "feedback process" either.